QMumbai: Air Quality Dwindles; Regal Cinema Headed for Shutdown

After a brief period of ‘satisfactory’ air, Mumbai witnessed a dip in air quality on Tuesday, with several areas exhibiting ‘very poor’ readings of particulate matter (PM) 2.5. The overall air quality in the city was moderate at 145, a downgrade from the satisfactory level on Sunday and Monday. The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) has projected that the air quality will deteriorate on November 7 and 8, to a ‘very poor’ bracket (306).

Regal, one of the city’s oldest single screen cinemas as well as its first air-conditioned theatre, is on its last breath. “It’s just a matter of time. Regal could close down any day,” rues Kamal Sidhwa Taraporevala, granddaughter of Faramji Sidhwa who founded the cinema 85 years ago.

In recent years, the cinema has been posting a loss of Rs 1 crore annually. The average occupancy rate has dwindled to around 15-20 per cent of the 1,160 stand-alone seater. Ticket sales have nosedived drastically since the proliferation of multiplexes at the turn of the millennium.

With no progress on her sexual harassment case more than a fortnight after she first filed a written complaint at the Versova police station, actor Kritika Sharma has now filed a writ petition in the Bombay HC, seeking an FIR against Bollywood casting director Vicky Sidana. The matter is listed for November 22.

Meanwhile, Sidana has filed a civil defamation case for Rs 4 crore against her over her allegation that he attempted to rape her in 2013. Kritika's lawyer, Ashutosh Srivastava, said, "We have filed a criminal writ petition before the HC for directions to be given to the Maharashtra police to register an FIR."

The Mumbai Police raided a high-profile poker party at Juhu’s Sea Princess Hotel early on Tuesday. As many as 135 people, including those who had come to play and the organisers, have been detained.

The Social Service Branch of the police conducted the raid on the instructions of Commissioner of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ashutosh Dumbare, after receiving information that an invite-only party would be held at the 5-star hotel on Juhu Tara Road.

The party was organised in the halls on the first and second floors of the hotel by the Indian Poker Face (IPF), an Andheri-based firm that organises regular meet-ups for poker players.

The BMC has picked 16th to 18th floors of 36-storey seafacing JK House in Breach Candy for a museum as part of its initiative to lift the city’s art and cultural spaces. Owned by industrialist Gautam Singhania, the land was turned into a residentialcommercial complex with the promise of giving the civic body three floors. Though JK House got all the civic clearances last year, BMC’s building proposal department only recently moved on the museum project owing to “procedural delays”.

Spread over 26,500 sq ft, while one floor will be dedicated to an urban planning exhibition centre, the other two floors will largely have artefacts from Singhania family’s art collection, including its exquisite jade collection and textiles.

6. Mumbaikars! Soon, You Can Pay for Local Train Tickets by Credit/Debit Card

You could soon use your credit/debit cards to buy a local train ticket or pass, with the IT arm of the Indian Railways working on plugging the last loophole in the project.

The Centre for Railway Information Systems, the IT arm of Indian Railways, has, through the Central Railway, forwarded a proposal to the railway board to modify the existing lot of ticket machines. Once the changes are made as a policy decision, the Automated Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) across the country will allow debit and credit card transactions for buying tickets.

Instead of initiating action against civic officials who attempted to name and shame RTI activists, the BMC has in fact requested the police to lodge an FIR against the activists for defaming the civic body and interfering in government proceedings.

A board carrying the names and pictures of the four activists, calling them ‘professional complainants’ was put up outside the K-west ward’s office in Andheri in September. It was removed following an outcry.